Sleeve construction



l. L. FREEDMAN SLEEVE CONSTRUCTION June `25, 1946, A

INVENTOR. .77ee0/mqp Warm/Ey Filed April 1'7, 1944 mndnmnnurrun.

Patented June 25, 1946 UNITED v2,402,61li

STATES PATENT OFFICE (Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30, 1928; 370 O. G. 757) 1 Claim.

The invention described herein, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention contemplates the provision of a sleeve which fits closely under the arm of the wearer but which does not bind and will not rip or tear easily.

It has been a. fault in clothing designed for persons leading active lives, as members of the armed. forces, laborers and athletes, that the sleeves of upper body garments of various types were either too tight, resulting in binding, chafing, wearing and ripping of the seams, or too loose, resulting in a poor fit, untidy appearance, too great bulk under the outer garments, lack of warmth in cold climates or in cold weather and even in so much fullness as to interfere with the movements of the wearer.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a sleeve which avoids the diiiiculties due both to tightness and to looseness, and which fits closely and permits free stretching at the same time.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a sleeve having an underarm extension projecting above the normal underarm line and folded downwardly to approximately that line, the free edge of said downwardly turned portion being seamed flatwise to the armhole of the garment body, the fold of material providing an eifective elongation of the underarm length of the garment when the wearers arm is raised.

Further objects of the invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a soldier wearing a garment having the improved sleeve construction,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a part of the right sleeve raised above and separated from the adjacent body portion,

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the upper portions of the patterns of the two sleeves sections and Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective view on a larger scale of the underarm portion of the left sleeve and adjacent body portion,

As shown in the drawing the invention comprises a garment having a body A and a sleeve B secured together by the seam II). The sleeve B is formed of two sections as indicated particular- 1y in Fig. 3, an underarm section II and a. top

section I2. The two sections are joined by seams I3 and I4 as indicated in Fig. 2. The tops of the two sections are cut in a peculiar conguration to furnish semi-circular extension I5 integral with the sections at the under arm portions. The extension I5 is bisected by a dart I6 in the part formed on the sleeve section II, which when the sleeve is sewed into the body of the garment forms an extension of the underarm body seam Il. The semi-circular extension I5 is formed of separate flaps or extensions I8 and I9 on the section II, these extensions being separated by the dart I6, and a iiap or extension 20 on the sleeve section I2. The dart I6 is formed by removing a portion of the material to form a notch 2| having a straight side 22 and a side 23 having an outwardly extending angle 24, and seaming the sides 22 and 23 together.

When the sides `of the notch 2I are seamed together to form the dart I5 the angle 24 causes a slight drawing in of the extension at its base which causes the nished sleeve to tend to fold at the line O-X as indicated in Figure 4. This fold, which ts closely under the armpit, stretches freely lengthwise when the wearers arm is raised.

As shown in Fig. 1, the jacket having the improved sleeve construction permits the wearer to raise his arm without having the bottom of the jacket pull up at the waist. This construction gives a maximum of freedom of motion without the provision of extra material or folds or fullness of any sort, thus producing a very well iitting garment. It also reduces the tension on the seam which secures the sleeve on the armhole, which otherwise might be subjected to strains sufficient to tear the fabric or rip the stitches. The garment is exceedingly neat in appearance and` gives the greatest possible comfort, particularly when worn under over-garments having moderately close iltting sleeves.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:

A garment sleeve comprising separate top and undersleeve parts seamed together, a foldable extension on the upper end of the undersleeve part, said extension having a cut-out extending lengthwise of the sleeve between the seams, said cutout being wider at the fold line of the extension and tapering toward the ends, whereby a constriction is produced which tends to maintain the fold up. right in a. completed garment.

ISRAEL L. FREEDMAN, 

